Recurring structures, contrasts, and literary devices that can help develop a text’s major themes

“Paul’s Case” by Willa Cather

He wore…a red carnation in his jacket’s buttonhole….When the weather was warm the girls made lemonade, which was always brought out in a red-glass pitcher….He came out of the room in his red robe….He remembered the old woman from whom he had bought the red flowers….The carnations in his coat were drooping with cold, he noticed; all their red glory over.

Based on the passage above, what would be a logical motif?

“Everyday Use” by Alice Walker

“Maggie can’t appreciate these quilts!” Dee said. “She’d probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use.”

“I reckon she would,” I said. “Goodness knows I been saving ‘em, for long enough with nobody using ‘em. I hope she will!” I didn’t want to bring up how I had offered Dee a quilt when she went away to college. Then she had told me they were old-fashioned, out of style.

“But they’re priceless!” she was saying now, furiously; for she has a temper. “Maggie would put them on the bed and in five years they’d be in rags. Less than that!”

She can always make some more,” I said. “Maggie knows how to quilt.”

Dee looked at me with hatred. “You just will not understand. The point is these quilts, these quilts!”

“Well,” I said, stumped. “What would you do with them?”

“Hang them,” she said. As if that was the only thing you could do with quilts…. “You just don’t understand,” she said, as Maggie and I came out to the car.

“What don’t I understand?” I wanted to know.

“Your heritage,” she said.

Based on the passage above, what would be a logical statement of theme?

What would be a logical explanation of how the quilt is a literary symbol in "Everyday Use" by Alice Walker?

“The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara

“Will you look at this sailboat, please,” say Flyboy, pointing to the thing like it was his….

We all start reciting the price tag: “Handcrafted sailboat of fiberglass at one thousand one hundred ninety-five dollars.”….

“This boat for kids, Miss Moore?” say Q.T.

“Parents silly to buy something like that just to get all broke up,” say Rosie.

“That much money it should last forever,” I figure….

“Let’s go in,” Miss Moore say like she got something up her sleeve. Only she don’t lead the way. So me and Sugar turn the corner to where the entrance is but when we get there I kinda hang back. Not that I’m scared, what’s there to be afraid of, just a toy store. But I feel funny, shame. But what I got to be shamed about? Got as much right to go in as anybody….

Who are these people that spend…$1000 for toy sailboats? What kinda work they do and how they live and how come we ain’t in on it? Where we are is who we are, Miss Moore always pointin out. But it don’t necessarily have to be that way, she always adds then waits for somebody to say that poor people have to wake up and demand their share of the pie and don’t none of us know what kind of pie she talking about in the first darn place.

Based on the passage above, what would be a logical statement of theme?

What would be a logical explanation of how the sailboat is a literary symbol in "The Lesson" by Toni Cade Bambara?